Mass Exodus? We are 2/2 up till now,when will be the next time..?

well now that the new event is over and the patch is in.What do you guys think when will the mass exodus/crisis/omg you ruined the game thing will come again?

I mean it first came with Halloween and how greedy they were...the 1st day because after that and their very expensive thingies you could actually farm them easily as hell on the 2nd day

and now with lost shore and the gated content where people will have to grind gear to manage the fractals of the mist,while the 1st day of the dungeon i have seen people going till lvl 9 difficultly with exotics.

Changed the thread's title to give a little more... idea as to what people may/may not be walking into. And I'd [like] to keep this thread going for a bit, without open hostility, so as a reminder
[watch your tone and let's keep this peaceful, thanks-- <3 Kel]

Taking the mod-hat off, and giving my personal opinion? I don't really remember the halloween thing being that big of an issue to be honest. Maybe I just didn't care? I 'unno. But I barely have the desire to log in anymore. I may pop in once in awhile to check to see what my friends are doing, but my enjoyment levels have just tanked from the introduction of Ascended Gear, and the Infusion mechanic associated with them.

I also know for a fact that they're dragging it out over an extended period of time to try to convince the easily swayed that "it's not a gear treadmill", but once you hit that full set eventually, the fact is, people will stop feeling like they're advancing and a new tier will need to be made. Not just this, but it's already accounted for with the addition of giving out "complementary ascended gear" to help those behind catch up when the new tiers are released. Kind of like Badges of Justice/Emblems of Frost/Valor Point gear.

Those loyal to what they think the name stands for, who are so madly deftly in love with this....thing will continue to be, and at this point they could almost work in a trinity six-to-eight months down the road, have a blog post saying that it's the direction they feel is best for the game, and these same people will swallow it up.

These people will never leave.

For everyone else, a) they were tired a long time ago, may occasionally pop in, or b) they really have no desire to pop in anymore, and you're using overcrowded servers running a free-trial event with enough hype around it to get the people from a) as a metric.

In about a week or two, server pops will drop down to just below average of what they are (still labelled as High, with LA in constant overflow, WvW with a queue for almost every server, but everywhere else bleeding out slowly). And that's probably where it will stagnate. The average user won't notice a difference because that's already how it was for most of them.

Just don't be surprised when a few of those grey names on your friendslist that you really enjoyed playing with just stop logging in.

well the point of this post is not about liking or disliking the game :P i can understand if you like it or no but about that whole mentality that people keep having to cry wolf before they learn more facts.

as for the gear treadmill,since i can do the instance with exotic it doesn't matter for me.if something changes in the future we will see but up till then and if the trend remains as it is the game is what they said it would be.

as for the free trial thing and the servers,well the servers population at any time shows how many people play at that given time not how many are registered at that server.So up till now they have quite some healthy population so there is no use to try and cook numbers with free trials.Free trials were just PR that any company does.

EDIT
For the ascended gear,it will show how gear grind will it become when we will see how far you can go with exotic,for now the highest i have seen is 9(if anyone did or see any more please say so)

That sounds like a lot of speculation and I'm not sure if I should feel insulted as someone who "swallows it up." The whole label of "gear treadmill" and using it as ammunition against Ascended Gear is tiresome. Since that comparison could have already been easily applied to the difference between level 80 Masterwork vs level 80 Exotic gear and that's been in since day 1. You only need Ascended gear if you're at like level 13+ in Fractals at which point you've accumulated more than enough fragments and drops to get it without any problems. Enjoy the game for what it is and focus less on the "shinies" as the only reward out there.

The next Mass Crying I imagine will be for whatever set of Legendaries are going to crop up, potentially the changes to the existing ones. In the end it's just going to be a gaggle of people whining about nothing. If only they could focus their energy on something productive.

PS. the new "mod-approved" title doesn't match the topic at all. Since the OP is mocking the concept of the "mass exodus," not validating it. Also, no offense, but I'm not sure how someone can moderate a forum for something they admit to never playing anymore.

That sounds like a lot of speculation and I'm not sure if I should feel insulted as someone who "swallows it up." The whole label of "gear treadmill" and using it as ammunition against Ascended Gear is tiresome. Since that comparison could have already been easily applied to the difference between level 80 Masterwork vs level 80 Exotic gear and that's been in since day 1. You only need Ascended gear if you're at like level 13+ in Fractals at which point you've accumulated more than enough fragments and drops to get it without any problems. Enjoy the game for what it is and focus less on the "shinies" as the only reward out there.

The fact that they are adding this now, after the fact that the game is out, to appease people who don't have enough "shinies" and need a sense of progression (whatever happened to the idea that "the best gear is early on, the upgrades are all cosmetic?"). If Ascended Gear was just to be for the dungeon and only useful for the dungeon, it would be Exotic Gear with an Infusion slot. It would not have higher stats. Problem is, it is higher stats, doesn't matter how miniscule it is. That someone who hasn't been playing (took time off) will legitimately be behind the curve, against their idea of super casual "this will never happen to you". And that they've flat out said straight to everyone's face, that this is a Continued idea of progression, implementing badges-of-justice ways of catching up as they push it farther... WarCraft was hated on pretty hard in these boards because it was a "gear grind" despite how long the patches were to get said gear. Why is patching in a new tier treated as if it's only a one-time thing (when ANet specifically spells it out for you that it's not), and that it being stretched out over an unspecified time suddenly makes it okay?

The hypocrisy both of the company, and of the fans casual acceptance (or proclaiming any distaste for it as QQ, not that you've done here) is just a backhand across the face.

The next Mass Crying I imagine will be for whatever set of Legendaries are going to crop up, potentially the changes to the existing ones. In the end it's just going to be a gaggle of people whining about nothing. If only they could focus their energy on something productive.

My money's on the next "Class overhaul changes".

Look at how well they "fixed" all the things for Ranger, coinciding with nothing they actually talked about or fixed to begin with.

---------- Post added 2012-11-19 at 03:11 AM ----------

Originally Posted by antonatsis

well legendaries will be tuned up to reach ascended gear but i would really like a legendary armor or 2 :P it doesn't matter if i would ever make it but the idea rings nice to my head.

Legendaries will be tuned up, yes. And Legendary Armor is eventually on the way, and it as well will be tuned up to Ascended/Majestic/Whatever gear levels will come after it.

well the class fix will be a thing but i prefer the stance they are taking on the subject.The whole meta-game approach.Also class changes will be a major thing since they want to make it an e-sport.

Also for the what ever part :P remember if it is needed only for lvl 9000 fractal i don't care :P i will farm it eventually but even now i am farming even for crafted armors it doesn't matter the power level.

PS. the new "mod-approved" title doesn't match the topic at all. Since the OP is mocking the concept of the "mass exodus," not validating it. Also, no offense, but I'm not sure how someone can moderate a forum for something they admit to never playing anymore.

Only thing I added was the words "Mass Exodus" infront of the title, nothing more, nothing less, because "So we are 2/2 up till now, when will be the next time" really doesn't help anyone.

Second, I can moderate because my opinions are my own, I can seperate that from what needs to be done here. As an addendum to that second point, if you feel I am unfit to moderate because you have an issue with the way things are done, you are free to contact Boubouille or Sunshine, our lovely site admins. But really, moderation itself isn't up for public debate. Take care.

---------- Post added 2012-11-19 at 03:20 AM ----------

Originally Posted by antonatsis

well the class fix will be a thing but i prefer the stance they are taking on the subject.The whole meta-game approach.Also class changes will be a major thing since they want to make it an e-sport.

What stance?

"We are fixing ranger utilities, their shouts spirits and signets are getting an overhaul because they're all pretty useless and we'd like to see that changed. By the way this is coming really soon"

Three and a half weeks later:
"So we uhh. we changed tooltips on a bunch of your stuff, we made spirits proc more often but they still die instantly, and uhh,, we may have forgotten something. Oh right, was it Greatsword? We buffed a couple greatsword skills. That's what you wanted, right? Yeah, glad we got this out, good patch bro"

I honestly think there are a lot of people having fun in this game. I think the only people leaving "massively" are the ones overanalyzing every single detail without even asking the basic question "does this or that change affect my sense of fun in the game?". From a casual player standpoint, the game has definite depth and lots of things to do without tiring you. I believe that you get the most out of it if you enjoy combining pvp with pve (therefore not getting bored with either easily), and I think there's a lot of people doing that. If they inject it with fresh stuff from time to time, all the better.

I honestly think there are a lot of people having fun in this game. I think the only people leaving "massively" are the ones overanalyzing every single detail without even asking the basic question "does this or that change affect my sense of fun in the game?". From a casual player standpoint, the game has definite depth and lots of things to do without tiring you. I believe that you get the most out of it if you enjoy combining pvp with pve (therefore not getting bored with either easily), and I think there's a lot of people doing that. If they inject it with fresh stuff from time to time, all the better.

If it were that simple then a simple "Stop overanalyzing stuff!" shout would immediately halt any form of exodus.

But things are never simple as people leaving because they are angry and disappointed are a normal thing to expect. How they get disappointed is another matter. For instance the Ascended gear controversy felt like a kick in the teeth for those who finally managed to develop some trust into a company and believed they are upright in their stance. Those who bought on specific terms like the absence of a gear grind. Whether it will effect them immediately is irrelevant in that context because there is a reason for why they used that specific premise. It may affect them in different ways, guild members and friends leaving being one of them and then being peer-pressured by an ever-growing crowd of people which once got spearheaded and psychologically pressured by the more elitist people to accept their terms of conditions to join a guild, a dungeon party or whatever new gear-configuration-dominated event popped up. As a whole this means less people are playing and if the company ought to recover from their losses they will fill their ranks with people unadulterated by previous beliefs of their once-valid principles. Thus the demography will reshape.
Thus it doesn't matter whether casual players will have a lot fun - I am one as well after all - it's just that you can't have a tsunami and say you won't feel a ripple because you are far away from the front. The effect will eventually be felt by everyone the bigger the controversy caused by a change was the more likely it will be felt by everyone.

I think the only people leaving "massively" are the ones overanalyzing every single detail without even asking the basic question "does this or that change affect my sense of fun in the game?".

Well, it's not quite like that. ArenaNet has fumbled a few things in ways that do affect my fun negatively. At the same time, these shortcomings are offset by plenty of good stuff and allow me to (at least for the time being) focus on the good and fun things. Just as I'm not abandoning WoW even though I loathe the dailies. Realistically, there won't ever be a mass market MMO that perfectly appeals to my preferences (or those of anybody else), so I have to weigh what I like against what I don't like and see what it gives me on balance. If it's predominantly positive, I'll keep playing, if not, I'll go do something else. It's not like I've entered into a marriage contract with ArenaNet, "till death do us part".

I'm baffled why people are going so mad over ascended gear and legendaries. You wouldn't notice it at all by being in the game, but as soon as you go on the forums it's full of OMG posts about how every single change is terrible.

They just added a free patch with 9! new dungeons, which are mostly better than the explorable modes.

Endgame progression is never going to keep everybody happy. There will always be people who want a big treadmill, people who just want casual handouts and people who think there should be no stats progression at all. 2 of 3 groups there are always gonna be mad. Cheer up and enjoy the content.

Wintersday will probably have the same concept as Halloween. Black Lion Chests awarding skins at 0.01% chance. Outcry on forums. Buff on droprate to 1%. Disclaimer: I enjoyed Halloween, just didn't bother with the chests.

Didnt log in to GW after 6 or so weeks after release, and if the world events are enought to keep some people occupied, they're certainly not enought for me to keep playing.

Another thing that gets me is the general chat when inside the Garrison. It totally reminds me of every prison film I've ever watched. The prisoners confined to their cells are talking to each other through the walls. Their chat is mostly pointless, vulgar and revolving around stuff they ll do once they get out. This is EXACTLY the content of every Garrison chat I've ever had to tolerate.

I'm baffled why people are going so mad over ascended gear and legendaries.

Because Arenanet spent years selling the game in everything from their manifesto to interviews / Q&A sessions, that "progression" would be horizontal (titles, cosmetic gear, achievemetns, etc), that there would not be a gear treadmill, in the space of 3 months they have done a total u-turn, so people feel they have been lied to / falsely advertised to, etc and are rightly annoyed.

---------- Post added 2012-11-19 at 01:02 PM ----------

Originally Posted by TradewindNQ

You only need Ascended gear if you're at like level 13+ in Fractals at which point you've accumulated more than enough fragments.

Or you wish to play WvW on a level playing field or play the product you bought on the basis it was sold to you.

I havennt found anything that appeals to me more... I was pretty happy with the event honestly. It took me to a new place, I sid two new jump puzzles and met a friendly Mesmer who showed me some tricks. The Kalka invasions took me back to an old zone and I knocked out two junping puzzles I hadnt seen before because of it.

I had a good weekend being a casual. Ive seen 5 of the new paths but have no interest in the gear grind so Im only doing the occasional fractal.

as for the free trial thing and the servers,well the servers population at any time shows how many people play at that given time not how many are registered at that server.

No it doesn't, if you've ever played very late at night you will see there are several servers that are still marked full (I played on the EU so servers like Desolation, Blacktide, VS, etc), yet when you actually log in at 4am the servers are pretty much empty - no queues in WvW (very occasionally there is short queue for EB), LA, Orr, Divinty's Reach, etc all virtually empty, and jsut a handful of sPvP servers with peolpe in.

I'm baffled why people are going so mad over ascended gear and legendaries. You wouldn't notice it at all by being in the game, but as soon as you go on the forums it's full of OMG posts about how every single change is terrible.

They just added a free patch with 9! new dungeons, which are mostly better than the explorable modes.

Endgame progression is never going to keep everybody happy. There will always be people who want a big treadmill, people who just want casual handouts and people who think there should be no stats progression at all. 2 of 3 groups there are always gonna be mad. Cheer up and enjoy the content.

Some go more mad than others I am frankly a little disappointed that they did it and that it already has an effect on people going by the new kind of LFG lines in chat. There's already postings asking for trinity, gearscore, armory and whatnot. It's because people are at least concerned that it's a slippery slope. For some people the game lost appeal and doesn't rank much higher than MMORPGs with traditional setup anymore. It shows that even a miniscule increase of power can lead to gradual grand-scale obsoletion of content and GW2 was one of those games priding itself with the fact that it cannot happen due to their progression setup. It also affects the mindset of the playerbase as a whole.

In my opinion ANet also took a big risk by catering to this kind of gamer. Because usually players aiming for vertical progression are one of the kind which once it has got everything they wanted they will just leave when they see there's nothing more to get. My concern is whether it is indeed a slippery slope or not. I don't know whether it is and neither does ANet but since the dam is broken everything is possible now and the former trust is gone. It also has an effect on how players will perceive future MMOs just as they did when SW:TOR turned out differently.

Edit: Some people will of course quit, some will stay. Doesn't mean everyone staying should be silent and not criticising. The whole opposite actually. You can't manage a bee hive without being stung once and then.

Once the gear starts to affect me in a way that I feel it is noticeable, I will quit. I bought this game because I played wow nonstop all the way from classic and I started raiding already back when ZG came out first time. I have grinded my gear for years. After I finally managed to quit wow, I started feeling like I didn't want that again. Then came gw2 and I found out all the gear difference is about looks! Oh yeah! Thats game for me! Now I'm very disapointed, but not enough to get me quit yet.

They should have just gone with the idea that better gear is just better looking. There are always people going with that idea. What keeps players in game is new content and possibility of new better looking gear. Ascended gear breaks that as if ascended item was a rock thrown into glass.

Right now it is just couple items that give perhaps tiny power increase compared to others, but in time they will put in more and the more they put in the greater effect it has. As is said previously, even tiny increase can already be devastating.

but my enjoyment levels have just tanked from the introduction of Ascended Gear, and the Infusion mechanic associated with them.

I am happy for the moment. Still have a lot to do so that may change. What I don't understand is this portion above. Yes, they have changed a part of the game. Call it gear progression or whatever. It doesn't have to effect you or anyone else. How can adding something else to the game take away the pleasure you were getting from it? How does it effect you in game? It's like refusing to go to a restuarant because they served a biker the day before even when they have the best food in town. I understand that people are not happy because of what A/Net could do next. To use another analagy, thats like refusing to drive because they may turn the road you use into a one way. When they do it, then quit. Why does it have to effect the enjoyment you have today? People seem to treat MMO's differently to other games. There is a feeling that you have an investment in the game. I don't look at it that way. I look at it as 180 hours of fun. If I never play it again, I haven't lost that time, I had a ball doing it.

GW2 could well turn into a 3 month play fest at the launch of every expansion. Time will tell. It may slowly die. IMHO, it's already done enough to change the landscape.